Cicero's speeches and essays—especially the Verrines—were widely read in France and England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when they were used in public debates about the fate of art in wartime. The early development of the concept of “cultural property” owed much to careful readings and citations of Cicero's views. The main charge brought against Verres in 70 B.C. was extortion during his term as governor of Sicily, but in the course of his prosecution Cicero depicts Verres as a rapacious collector of art who even took cult statues from temples for his private collection. This portrait of a “collector” who felt entitled to anything he could get and who abused his official authority to acquire works of art was recalled and used in debates about “collecting” many centuries later. This paper examines how Ciceronian views contributed to the development of the concept of art as cultural property.